The main impetus for this proposal is that memory research is in desperate need of new and more powerful diagnostic tools. Recall is but the final outcome of a highly intricate chain of processing which begins with the encoding of each memory item. The proposed work would concentrate on the information processing incurred during that processing. Three dimensions of processing would be monitored: quality, duration, and intensity. Quality would be monitored by having S process overtly; duration by either S to pace the input of memory items at his own rate, or by having him indicate by a button push when he has terminated the processing of a particular input item; and intensity by having S perform a subsidiary reaction time (RT) task. Hence, upon the presentation of a memory item, it should be possible to uncover how and what S thinks (overt processing), how long he processes the item (interitem pause or button-push latency), and how hard he thinks (concurrent RT). The first phase of the research would explore these monitoring techniques, and determine how best to implement them. The second phase would apply the monitoring procedures to the diagnosis of such well- established effects on recall as those of item repetition, high-priority events, organization, and imagery. The outcome of the research would be some workable vehicles for monitoring information processing in memory tasks, and the initiation of a powerful data bed from which a viable account of human memory should ultimately emerge.